by the way, german chancellor angela merkel will meet with president obama at the white house later this week. on monday, russia's defense minister assured chuck hagel that russia will not invade ukraine. ukraine's acting president urged lawmakers today in kiev to quickly adopt a new constitution he says could preserve unity. militants continue to hold dozens of hostages, including seven military observers. on monday evening there were violent clashes in donetsk after the militia attacked demonstrators during a unity rally. jim maceda was at that rally and joins us live from donetsk. jim, you have been covering this from the beginning and it appears as though the violence, the tension continues to just escalate. is that a fair assessment? >> reporter: yeah, kristen, i would say that the fair assessment is that this region is always teetering on violence. it's on the edge of anarchy and it could go either way. you referred to the demonstration last night. we were there, as you said. it started out very peacefully in downtown donetsk. this was not a group of neo-nazis as all the russian st